There is certainly a lot going on in Ottawa these days, most of it from the new government, but a lot of it is just the regular flow of affairs.

Of course the biggest news is the Federal Budget. The Liberal Government’s second budget was released March 22nd, overshadowing World Water Day, but with good news. Pundits complain there is no new spending, while last year they said there was too much spending – go figure??

CWWA’s National Water and Wastewater Conference is quickly becoming an industry landmark, offering a unique technical program that combines the latest in water and wastewater research, technical papers on utility processes, water and wastewater regulation and the latest in utility management including the challenges of lead in drinking water, asset management and filling human resource gaps.

The Window on Ottawa is a unique event – featuring presentations and panel discussions on federal and national policies from the federal departments and national organizations making policy decisions. The event will feature presentations and panel discussion on the most important federal initiatives and programs.This event is not only an opportunity to learn what's happening on the federal scene, but also a chance to influence it.

Since April 2016, the MacEachen Institute has been working with the CWWA to investigate current security risks and practices in the Canadian water and wastewater sector. Over the past year, we have completed reports on the legislative, policy, and academic landscapes around water security in Canada.

Is your municipality looking for ways to take action on climate change? New funding from FCM’s Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program can help. You can now apply for up to $175,000 for plans and studies to prepare for the realities of climate change, including colder winters, hotter summers, extreme storms and droughts, and take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program is offered through FCM and funded by the Government of Canada. Learn more and apply today.

We are saddened to announce the passing of Steven Renzetti, a key CWWA supporter and friend to many of us in the water community. Steven passed away on February 3rd. He was recognized as one of the leading researchers in Canada on water efficiency and economics. Steven was a regular contributor to our CWWA conferences and will be sadly missed.

For many people, what they flush down the toilet is out of sight, out of mind. But for wastewater experts, items labelled "flushable," such as wipes, toilet sponges, and even thick toilet paper, are a big headache as they clog aging sewer pipes. Barry Orr, sewer outreach and control inspector for the City of London joins Steve Paikin to discuss why he believes people need to think more about what they send down the loo.

Statistics Canada published this week an extensive study on freshwater in Canada in the latest edition of Human Activity and the Environment (HAE 2016), in advance of World Water Day, on March 22.

This new report provides updated statistics on freshwater supply and demand, and includes data for Canada’s 25 drainage regions, detailed maps for these regions, as well as many charts and tables with information organized thematically and by area.

The latest feature World Water Day... by the numbers also includes highlights from this study, as well as other interesting facts about water, renewable freshwater supply and water use in Canada.

March has seen a number of infrastructure announcements across Canada as 2017 budgets are released. Read on to learn about funding for water, wastewater and environmental protection infrastructure in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

A group representing Great Lakes region mayors in the U.S. and Canada is sounding the alarm against potentially drastic cuts to an ecological recovery initiative for the Great Lakes.

The Trump administration's potential cuts to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative were reported by the Detroit Free Press last week. They would slash annual funding for the $300 million program to $10 million.

Shower based water savings - Has showering and water consumption changed over the past 17 years? Some experts claim that by reducing shower flow rates, people just take longer showers to compensate. Is this true? Comparing results from the two North American Residential End-Use Studies of Water (1999 and 2016), the report examines how showering habits have changed and resultant changes in water savings.

Shower Habits Time of Day: When do people take their showers? Intuitively, of course, we all think we know when most people shower. Are we right or wrong? This report analyzes data from the 1999 and 2016 Residential End-Use Studies of Water to see how shower time-of-day habits may have changed over the 17-year interval.

Tecvalco Ltd. is both a premier distributor and a manufacturer that – through hard work, honesty, integrity, and service beyond industry standards – provides products that are both great value, and high quality engineered specific to the Natural Gas, City, HDD, Utility Contractor and Wholesale Industries in Canada.

As reported in previous issues of the CWWA E-Bulletin, Health Canada recently published a proposed Guideline document for lead in drinking water, lowering the Maximum Acceptable Concentration (MAC) to 5 ?g/L, from the current Guideline of 10 ?g/L. It is important to note that this new MAC is based on analytical limitiations, and the document recommends maintaining lead levels at " As Low As Reasonably Achievable".

In 2018, the two top-tier meetings in urban water systems modelling will come together in a joint conference in Kingston, Ontario. Queen’s University and the Royal Military College are organizing the 1st International Joint Conference in Water Distribution Systems Analysis and Computing and Control in the Water Industry in Kingston, Ontario, on July 23-25, 2018.

The Canadian Water Summit is happy to announce that Hank Venema has been named as the 2017 CWS Chair.

Dr. Henry David (Hank) Venema is a professional engineer with a diverse natural resource background spanning water resources, agriculture, energy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, rural development, ecosystem management, environmental economics, and environmental finance. Hank has served as the International Institute for Sustainable Development's chief scientist since 2014 and is planning director for the Prairie Climate Centre.

Many breweries have a tendency to discharge high-strength effluent, and, particularly in small communities, municipal wastewater infrastructure is not always designed to handle this type of new impact.

Compounded by the fact that small-to-medium sized brewers have flooded the North American marketplace, each constrained by space and capital, Toronto-based ECONSE Water Purification Systems realized that this growing niche market needed its own wastewater solution.

Washington, DC, - March 22, 2017 - The Value of Water Campaign today released an economic impact analysis it commissioned to understand how investments in the nation's water infrastructure affects economic growth and employment. The report, "The Economic Benefits of Investing in Water Infrastructure" will be shared for the first time today, World Water Day, at a briefing on Capitol Hill.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published its first ever list of antibiotic-resistant priority pathogens, cataloguing 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.

The list was created to guide and promote research and development (R&D) of new antibiotics, as part of WHO’s efforts to address growing global resistance to antimicrobial medicines. As Kara Neudorf, postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University, reported for Water Canada in January, 2016, "The battle to mitigate this resistance is a global problem and is compounded by the fact pharmaceutical companies have curtailed investment into the development of new antibiotics."

The City of Kelowna has released its 2017 Kelowna Integrated Water Supply Plan (KIWSP), which re-assessed its 2012 Plan and follow the original guiding principles for an integrated water supply plan to serve all of the city’s residents.

Cybersecurity researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new form of ransomware that was able to take control of a simulated water treatment plant. After gaining access, the researchers commanded programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to shut valves, increase the amount of chlorine added to water and display false readings.